“How do you buy, and how do you sell?” He then bargains with them until he reaches a figure that secures what is fair both for them and for the public at large, so that they are satisfied; they are not forced to adopt a set price, but do so willingly. He continued: On this basis those who allow price-setting have permitted it. Abū al-Walīd said: The rationale is that this procedure enables one to ascertain the interests of both sellers and buyers, allotting the sellers a margin of profit that sustains them without wronging the people. If a ceiling were imposed without their consent at a level that left them no profit, the result would be distorted prices, hoarding of foodstuffs, and harm to the populace. ⦗1⦘

I say: This, then, is the very point over which the scholars have differed.

As for cases in which people refuse to sell what they are obliged to sell, they must be commanded to perform their duty and punished for neglecting it. Likewise, anyone who is required to sell at the prevailing market price yet refuses to sell except for more must be compelled to fulfil his obligation and is punished for abandoning it—there is no doubt about this.

Whoever rejects price-setting outright, invoking the Prophet’s ﷺ words, “Indeed it is Allah who sets prices, constricts, and gives abundance, and I hope to meet Allah while none of you has any claim against me concerning blood or wealth,” ⦗2⦘ is mistaken. This was a specific incident, not a universally worded ruling. It contains nothing about anyone refusing to sell an item he was bound to sell, or to do a duty that was upon him, nor about anyone asking more than the fair equivalent.

It is well known that when buyers enter into competitive bidding for something, and its owner has offered it in the usual manner but the people keep outbidding one another, no price ceiling is set in that situation. As we have noted, most of the food sold in Madinah was imported; occasionally something grown locally was offered, but only barley was cultivated there. Consequently, the sellers and buyers were not a fixed group of individuals, and there was no one whose person or whose wealth was indispensable to the community such that he could be compelled to work or to sell. Rather, all the Muslims were of one stripe: all of them strove in the path of Allah. Among the adult Muslims capable of jihad there was not a single one who stayed behind from military expeditions; each went forth with his own self and his own wealth, or with what he received from alms or spoils, or with what someone else equipped him.